Original Homemade Lego Couple Costume

Let me start by telling that my girlfriend is amazing. Before I met Sarah, every year she made awe inspiring costumes. I loved seeing her masterpieces. You could see how much energy she puts in to the costumes.

For our first Halloween together, we knew we wanted to do couple costumes but we had trouble deciding what to be. It had to be recognizable but also unique.

We knew there would be tons of Breaking Bad character costumes. But it wasn’t until after we stumbled upon a YouTube video that we ever considered the possibility of putting a unique spin on this popular choice.

The YouTube video featured a Breaking Bad episode re-imagined as a Lego video game. It was brilliant, and it got our mental gears turning.

“We could use blue Lego pieces as meth crystals!”

And with that, our costume decision had been made. I would be Lego Jesse Pinkman, and Sarah would be Lego Walter White. Together, we were Breaking Brick!

We started by taking the dimensions of a normal-sized Lego figurine and scaled them up to human proportions. We also combed the internet for examples of those who had gone before us. Fortunately, there have been many awesome parents who chronicled their homemade, child-sized Lego costume creations. We followed their expert tips and crafted a plan for our own costumes.

We wanted to follow the Lego figurine dimensions for both the torso and feet, so we created those pieces using cardboard and packing tape. Later, we glued poster paper to the outside of the finished pieces, spray painted them yellow (to resemble the iconic yellow hazmat suits), painted on zippers and added the red Lego log to the back of each torso. The feet and torsos of each costume were identical.

Under the cardboard body, we wore actual yellow hazmat suits. For practical purposes, it made sense to forgo rigid pieces when it came to the arms. The hazmat suits blended in with the rest of the pieces, and gave us the flexibility to ditch the legs later on. This was especially helpful when we realized that it wasn’t going to be very comfortable walking long distances in Lego legs.

For the hands and head pieces, we cut, sanded, and Gorilla glued together sheets of rigid insulation foam.

Specifically for the hands, we formed pieces that resembled the c-shaped claws of Lego figurines and cut holes in the center so our own hands could poke through. We painted the Lego claws a shade of blue that resembled that of the rubber gloves worn by Walter and Jesse when they cooked. And to camouflage our own hands within the claws, we wore the same shade of rubber gloves.

For props, we made two stacks of enlarged Lego cash (coating tissue boxes in green paint and a printout of the toy money decal). Walter also got his own (regular glass) beaker filled with actual blue “meth” Lego pieces.

Specifically for the heads, we cut and attached Styrofoam buckets to form the necks and characteristic nubs at the top of each head. The crowns and chins of each head were constructed by stacking and gluing the insulation foam sheets together. To create a hollowed center for our own heads, we stacked smaller cuts of insulation foam sheets together to form columns. Once dry, we wrapped each one with poster board. After coating the foam components with Bondo (to prevent dissolving), we spray painted each head a color suitable for a meth head and high school teacher-turned-drug kingpin. Wholesome!

We added faces to the heads and used Jesse’s mouth and Walter’s mustache for our disguised eye and air holes.

The faces where the main differentiators for otherwise identical costumes. To further distinguish Jesse from Walter, we made a giant beanie using an old black sweater.

On Halloween night we planned on walking the entire length of the West Hollywood Carnival Parade. But we were mobbed by so many fans of the show wanting pictures with Lego Walter and Jesse that we wound up staying in one spot all night. People loved our costumes!

It was a labor-intensive project, but well worth the end result. It was ambitious, zany, and fun just like us. I can’t wait for all the Halloweens Sarah and I will have together.